After the disappointment of last week’s lacklustre performance at Winscombe, Oldfield were determined to put in a stand up performance against a Walcot side who had won the previous few encounters.

Skipper Humphries was back from his, Crown Green Bowling tournament in France and rallied his troops with a typical “Braveheart” speech laced with expletives. In the front row Andy Wright showed that he wants to nail down that position for good, although he’ll have to work hard to keep Trefor Roberts out of what must surely now be his destiny.

Afforded a start by the absence of traffic cop Murph (away on flag waving training) Wrighty, worked hard and made lots of new noises before reverting to 8 when ‘blowing out the arse Roberts’ retired for a pie and a pint.

Oldfield won the toss and opted to play into what was a swirling wind. They were quickly forced into defensive mode as Walcot exerted tons of early pressure; but Oldfield’s fierce defence restricted them to just 2 penalties and a 6-0 lead.

Convict Barnes kept urging the Piggies on and slowly Oldfield worked back into the game. Kev Escott carried well in the tight and young Toby Patrick looked a class act in this department, which was in addition to his usual elusive running in the loose. Shadow & Fielding targeted the ball at the breakdown to good effect and were ably watched by Trefor Roberts..

A flat feed from a scrum saw the decrepit Bunti, smash up through the 10 channel and as the ball went through two quick phases, Oldfield grabbed the try their play deserved in the corner. Chris Ericson and Sam Lane in the centres were looking solid defensively and started to open up some gaps out wide; ably assisted by Gorge Patrick on one wing, Andy Taylor on the other and Ben Escott from full back.

In the second half the game opened up a little for Oldfield and the combinations really started to gel, with the pack winning good quick ball and the threes looking deadly in broken field.  Oldfield seized the initiative as George Patrick looped around Bunti for a well worked try.

Oldfield could and should have scored two further tries. First a defence splitting angle from Sam Lane was pulled back for a very dubious forward pass and then, a 3 on 1 break was called back as the referee somehow thought the ball was still in a ruck and failed to allow Oldfield advantage. The last 10 minutes were made tense as Walcot scored a try of their own leaving the score line at an uncomfortably close  17-11 to Oldfield.

Oldfield closed the game out by ensuring that the final minutes were played deep inside Walcot territory and as the final whistle went there was a sense of satisfaction from a job well done – bring on Gordano next week.